Geology and Metallogeny of Mongolia

Abstract

Mongolia is a key component of the giant Central Asian Orogenic Belt and is formed by accretion of Cambrian, Ordovician, and Devonian-Carboniferous arcs, back-arcs, and accretionary wedges and Mesozoic-Cenozoic covers. Another view suggests that the CAOB comprises a collage of microcontinents and oceanic arcs that collided with one another and eventually accreted to the Siberian, Tarim, and Northern China cratons. All these assemblages host important, many world-class, Late Proterozoic to Late Mesozoic gold, copper-molybdenum, copper-gold, lead-zinc, tungsten-tin, rare earth, uranium, fluorspar, phosphate, and coal deposits formed in orogenic subduction and the post-orogenic environment associated with calc-alkaline, alkaline volcanic, and plutonic complexes.